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Rocket Racing League Showcases New X-Racers

Posted by kdawson on from the participatory-spectator-sport dept.

FleaPlus writes "The Rocket Racing League demonstrated two of their new 'Mark III' X-Racer rocketplanes at an air show in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Besides making for a fun show, the League also pushes the boundaries for reusable and easily maintainable rocket engines. (The X-Racer's liquid oxygen and ethanol rocket engine was made by John Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace, which recently released a video showcasing some of the rockets they've launched and landed in the past year.)"

4 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting.... by BJ_Covert_Action · · Score: 3, Insightful

    In other words, the Rocket Racing league found a way to make the most common form of space propulsion marketable to the general public: entertainment. Well played. If this rocket racing league takes off, it will certainly spurn advances in chemical based propulsion and reusable rocket engines since entertainment seems to be a great way to generate R&D money for technology (see NASCAR). I'm impressed.

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    Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
    1. Re:Interesting.... by Ranzear · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Except we've been waiting for this 'Rocket Racing League' to [i]take off[/i], pun or not, for the last [b]six years[/b]. It is the Duke Nukem Forever of motor^H^H^H^Hsports.

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      Slashdot: Where opinions are just opinions until you have mod points.
    2. Re:Interesting.... by phantomfive · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The one thing they are lacking is simultaneous racing. If you had a dozen rocket racers in the air at the same time, flying along the track, that would be a dream. I don't know if there is any way it could be done safely, but if there were, it would be 10 times better than nascar.

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      Qxe4
  2. Rockets....still? by hackus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Its sort of well...boring.

    I mean, the Chinese where doing that way back when people thought rocks where cool.

    Maybe its time to throw away the standard model, which missed like 95% of reality about how the universe works, and think about a different way to do things.

    First though, to do that we need to:

    1) Get rid of the money surrounding rocket contracts.
    2) Corrupt congressional leaders which are bought off by these contractors.
    3) Maybe getting rid of group think that is required in science today to think exactly the same as everyone else if you want to get published or get funding.

    oh yes....then of course there is the powers that be...because they simply will not stand for any kind of power source that will be limitless and pretty much freely available to everyone that would come about through said research because well, it threatens to end thier strangle hold on most of the world.

    If you decide that really, rockets are so passe, you might want to look at any of the 4 points above.

    But be very careful, trying to chaneg just ONE of the above points could be dangerous to your health.

    -Hack

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    Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.